This work explores T.S. Eliot’s relationship with the mechanical sound recording of the gramophone, making particular reference to its role in The Waste Land in providing the machine mediated sound track of modernity.

The viewer accompanies the needle on its journey across the landscape of a gramophone record.

The role of the needle is considered in first embedding sound, through creating the grooves of the record, and then as a "rider" travelling across the surface of the disc as it plays. 78-rpm records, made of shellac and slate dust, give something of themselves (dust) in order to release their sound, thus changing the landscape with each play.

“She smoothes her hair with automatic hand,

And puts a record on the gramophone.”

The Waste Land, 254-56

Exhibition supported by University of Kent

Hankverk & Found gallery supported by Arts Council Grants for the Arts

This is an independent event organised by members of the public in response to Turner Contemporary's invitation to create an event or activity inspired by The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot's legacy, and Turner Contemporary's exhibition Journeys with 'The Waste Land'.